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A 70-year-old Massachusetts woman is undergoing a series of rabies shots after she was recently attacked by a raccoon as she was putting up Christmas lights at her house. Donna Sanginario estimated the raccoon that attacked her weighed about 45 pounds. Sanginario suffered deep bites, scratch marks and bruises on both of her arms. She said the raccoon latched on and would not let go for about five minutes.
The 70-year-old woman said the only warning she had before the attack was "strange noise coming from the street." "I turned around to see what the noise was and I was staring at a huge raccoon about 10 feet away," Sanginario wrote in her post on Dec. 3. "Before I could do anything it jumped at me. Worst nightmare of my life. Both me and the raccoon were screaming so loud." The raccoon showed no signs of giving up during the struggle and persisted in biting Sanginario even as she managed to her arms around its head. "As I was screaming for help he fell off my arm but jumped right back.